In a small company, buying is usually informal. Someone needs a tool, uses the company card and mentions it in passing. That works until three people have bought three similar tools, a subscription renews for a year nobody uses, or a laptop is bought and nobody records who has it.
A purchase request does not have to be a procedure. One page, five fields and a clear rule on who answers is enough.
The five fields
Put these in a short form, a shared document or a message template:
- What and why. The product or device, and the problem it solves in one or two sentences. "A screen recording tool, so support answers can be shown instead of written" is a good reason. "It looks useful" is not.
- Owner. One named person who uses it, looks after it and is asked about it later. Not "the team".
- Total cost. The price for the first year, not the monthly price. Include setup, extra users, accessories and tax. For subscriptions, write the renewal date and the notice period.
- Alternatives considered. What you already have that could do the job, and one other option. Often the answer is a tool the company already pays for (see the monthly review of software subscriptions).
- Review date. A date 90 days after purchase, when the owner says whether it is used and worth the cost.
If the request takes more than ten minutes to write, the form is too long.
A limit without approval
Choose an amount under which people buy without asking, and write it down. The right number depends on the company. A useful test: an amount that would not hurt if it turned out to be a mistake.
Below the limit the rule is simple: buy it, fill in the page and send it to the person who keeps the inventory. This keeps small purchases fast and still leaves a record.
Two things count against the limit even if each purchase is small:
- Recurring costs. Judge a subscription by its yearly total.
- Repeated purchases. Five purchases under the limit in one week for the same purpose are one purchase.
Who decides above the limit
Name one person, and a deputy for holidays. For most small companies this is the owner or the person who manages the budget. Agree on a response time, for example two working days, so that a request does not wait for weeks and then get bought quietly anyway.
The decision has three possible answers: yes, no with a reason, or "use this instead". Write the answer on the same page. A short refusal with a reason does less damage than silence.
Some purchases need a second look regardless of price: anything that will hold customer data, anything that connects to company accounts, and anything with a contract longer than a year. For those, check where the data goes and who can log in (see how to choose a software supplier).
The 90-day review
Three months after purchase, the owner answers three questions on the same page:
- Is it used? By how many people, how often.
- Did it solve the problem written in field one?
- Keep, change or cancel? For a subscription, decide before the notice period starts, not after.
This takes five minutes and catches most waste. A tool that is not used after 90 days will not be used after a year. The earlier you cancel, the less you pay.
Write it into the inventory
Every approved purchase gets one line in the inventory: what, who owns it, date bought, cost, renewal or warranty date, and where the licence or receipt is kept. For devices, add the serial number and who has it now (see the company device inventory).
The inventory is what makes the rest useful. It tells you what you already own before you buy again, which contracts are coming up (see the contract renewal calendar), and what has to be handed over when the owner leaves.
Common mistakes
- A form that is too long. People skip it and buy anyway.
- No owner. The tool is paid for and nobody can say why.
- Monthly price instead of yearly cost. A small number hides a large total.
- No answer time. Requests wait, and people go around the process.
- No review. Purchases only ever accumulate.
- Purchases that never reach the inventory. The record is out of date within a quarter.
Summary
Use a one-page request with five fields: what and why, owner, total cost, alternatives and a review date. Set a limit below which people buy without approval, name who decides above it and how fast, review each purchase after 90 days, and record everything in the inventory. It takes minutes per purchase and saves the cost of tools nobody uses.
Sources
- Common practice for small businesses, offered as a practical guide. No client results or market figures are claimed in this article. Adjust the limit, the roles and the review period to your company.
